BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $6.3 trillion under management, announced on Monday that it’s considering Bitcoin for investment purposes. The firm’s CEO, Larry Fink, said that BlackRock is putting together a team to study cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase apparently received regulatory approval from US market regulators, the SEC and FINRA, to acquire three companies. These firms would allow Coinbase to list security tokens, such as ICOs. However, Coinbase walked back the announcement, stating that regulators have not given the official go-ahead.

SBI Holdings, a Japanese bank, has opened the world’s first crypto exchange to be backed by a bank. The new VCtrade exchange will feature Bitcoin, Ripple, and BCH trading for Japanese Yen.

The CEO of $24 billion hedge fund, Citadel, said during a CNBC interview that he doesn’t see the point of Bitcoin and considers it a waste of time.
Challenging this view was Avenue Capital Group’s CEO, billionaire Marc Lasry, who told CNBC he expects Bitcoin to hit a price level of $40,000. Lasry stated that he holds roughly 1% of his wealth in Bitcoin.

South Korean tech giant Samsung has begun accepting crypto payments in several Baltic nations via the CoPay platform. Customers in select parts of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will be able to buy Samsung phones and appliances online and pay using Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and a few other altcoins.

Recently, in a 33 page overview made by the European Parliament said that “Cryptocurrencies should not be banned or ignored”.http://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/14...cation.pdf
The World Bank has been briefing their staff on the disruption of crypto assets. On their website worldbank.org you can find a 60 page report.

Intercontinental Exchange—the trading colossus that owns the New York Stock Exchange and other global marketplaces—announced that it is forming a new company called Bakkt. The new venture, which is expected to launch in November, will offer a federally regulated market for Bitcoin. With the creation of Bakkt, ICE aims to transform Bitcoin into a trusted global currency with broad usage. NYSE is the biggest stock trader in the world. If they are interested in cryptos, I suppose SEC will likely approve crypto ETFs.SEC has to take a new decision by the end of september. If there is a yes this could mean a start of a new bull race.If so, I believe BTC will surpass $50000. Most of the top 20 currencies will follow this trend.

(2018-09-04, 09:00 AM)Carsten Wrote: I don't know about this. It seems like some of the major players will just earn some big bugs. They are only interested in crypto for the money. It's not necessarily good for the cryptoworld.

When these big guys intend to trade in crypto, they are obliged to get a massive amount in these cryptos as reserve. That's why I believe it could cause a gigantic bull run.